Exxon faces flak on reporting highest profits in US history

For the record, Exxon reported a quarterly profit of $10 billion and revenues of more than $100 billion.

Even before the company announced its results, critics such as Hillary Clinton, junior Democratic senator for New York, and a likely candidate as the next president of the United States claimed, that "if we don''t fight big oil, this country''s going down".

"You just cannot convince me that they are not manipulating this market," she said. "We''re not going to have the standard of living and the quality of life, and we''re not going to be able to control our future." Her comments came in a speech to a group of clean energy investors and other environmental activists.

Earlier this month Credit Suisse First Boston said the world''s five biggest oil firms may report combined net income of $26 billion for the third quarter, up 23 per cent from a year earlier and equal to the economic output of Hungary.

Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Conoco Phillips and Exxon have all reported such a large increase in profits this year that collectively they are expected to have made $100 billion by the end of this year.

The laws of supply and demand had pushed oil prices to $60 a barrel even before the winds of Hurricane Katrina shut down production in the Gulf of Mexico and disrupted petrol supplies across the whole country. But the subsequent jump in the price consumers were paying at the pump led to the inevitable allegations of price gouging and growing calls for a windfall tax on the oil majors'' profits.